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Good Game: Fae Don't Hate Red

Good Game: Fae Don't Hate Red

By Andrew Hanson on April 23rd, 2009 · Filed in Good Game, Standard (Type 2) · 18 Comments

Good Game: Fae Don't Hate Red
by Andrew Hanson


Needs no introduction.
[Editor's Note: Thirst for Knowledge is being delayed this week to accommodate its partial Standard discussion of Alara Reborn. It will appear tomorrow once the Gatherer has been updated; today, we present Friday's Good Game article.]

The Extended season is officially over now, and Standard is the new medium for those of us trying to qualify for the next Pro Tour (or those of us who will go to Grand Prix). That said, I've come to realize something about me as a Magic player: I'm not very good. I mean, I can do well at Competitive REL events, but that takes a lot of practice for me. Look at how I started my last article: I had to stay with Naya Zoo (not that I minded) because I couldn't play a combo deck right. The reason I think I'd been doing so well with the Merfolk deck was that I played that deck a lot. I'm not like a friend of mine who chooses his deck a day or two before a PTQ, and then wins a blue envelope with it.

I need to practice; I need to get comfortable with a deck to play it well. Only now am I beginning to realize how much that sucks—I need to know what I'm playing well before an event, and I can never really audible to a break-out "best" deck. All of this has been leading up to this: I think I like Faeries. Some of you may be moaning now. "Great, another writer talking about Faeries." But don't go yet. I like Faeries as the creature type, not necessarily the deck type.

Don't get me wrong: the Faeries deck is insane. It's so ridiculously good that its good hands will beat almost any other deck's best hands (exceptions being Blightning Beatdown and Swans). You get to play Bitterblossom on two, and then not play a single spell for the rest of the game except counter-magic and kill spells. Seems alright. But what I love more than that is playing my creatures on my opponent's turn. It feels so good to sit through your enemy's whole turn, keeping the counter mana up for anything dangerous, and then dropping a dude when they won't, or can't, play anything. It's exactly how I wished I could've played Merfolk...

But enough of all that. I want to win, for sure, but deep down, I also want to play something original, or at least something that I felt like I had a hand in creating. It's why my Naya Zoo decks were never straight copies off of net decks. It's why I added red to Faeries. What?

Here's the list:

U/B/r Faeries  
Lands
2 Cascade Bluffs
4 Crumbling Necropolis
2 Faerie Conclave
1 Island
1 Mountain
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Secluded Glen
1 Sulfurous Spring
2 Sunken Ruins
1 Swamp
2 Underground River

Creatures
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Vendilion Clique		Spells
2 Agony Warp
1 Banefire
4 Bitterblossom
2 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command
3 Grixis Charm
3 Jace Beleren
1 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Thoughtseize		Sideboard
2 Banefire
1 Jace Beleren
1 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Pithing Needle
4 Scepter of Fugue
4 Volcanic Fallout


In Faeries? Really?
I understand that explanations are in order. What did red do for me, other than bump Mutavaults out of the deck? It let me run Volcanic Fallout over Infest. Is that even a good thing? I think so. Part of what makes Faeries such a brutal deck is that it has ultimate flexibility with its spells. It can play almost all of them at any time. Why would it want its board sweeper to be any different? Plus, when you team Fallout with Banefire, you create a major headache for any blue deck, especially a blue deck that loses 1 life every upkeep because of a black enchantment.

Even outside the mirror, Banefire is great. It helps to even one of Faeries' worst matchups in Swans. Reach is really good against them, especially when it's uncounterable. And of course, there's Five-Color. Again, that extra bit of reach could take away the turn or two they needed to stabilize. I mean, does it really need to be argued that Banefire is good against blue?

But the real reason for adding red is perhaps the worst card in the deck. It's so bad. But it's so good. Grixis Charm. What does it do? Well, for starters, it does most of the same stuff that Terror (the card it replaced) did. The only real exceptions are that it can't kill Wall of Reverence or Burrenton Forge-Tender, but the latter was never a concern for Faeries.


A great card or the greatest card?
It can also bounce stuff. Any stuff. Land, creatures, enchantments, planeswalkers. It can send them all back to their owners' hands. This was something that, previously, only Cryptic Command could do. But if you ever played Cryptic like a Boomerang that cantrips, you know what I mean when I say you die a little inside. The Command can do so much more than bounce stuff. But with a Grixis Charm, that situation where you have to bounce with a Command becomes much less common.

Lastly, it gives all your creatures +2/+0. That's the real reason I wanted to run it. Bitterblossom online? A Grixis Charm could knock a turn or two off your clock. To illustrate, let me share a match report with you.

U/B/r Faeries vs. W/B Tokens

This was at the latest FNM, where I tested out the U/B/r Faeries to a 4-1 finish. I won the roll, and we both kept our seven. Sadly, I didn't have a Bitterblossom for turn two. I also didn't have a Broken Ambitions. My hand was pretty slow. But I had Agony Warp and Jace Beleren, so I figured it was a keeper. He played his own Blossom on turn two. I played Jace on turn three and drew a card—Bitterblossom. Not too bad, though it might be too late.


On the same team as Bitterblossom?
Doesn't seem fair...
He played a second Bitterblossom on turn three, as well as a Windbrisk Heights. Yeowch. But, on turn four, I drew a second Blossom. So I made my land drop and saw his two Blossoms. Let's get it on! As he was playing white, he also got to play a Spectral Procession. I played a Mistbind Clique when he finally had enough guys to swing and turn on the Heights. He must have drawn a Path to Exile, though, because he played during combat, before I declared the Clique as a blocker. He connected for 5 damage that turn, putting me down to 13 life. Of course, he was down to 15 life from his own Blossoms.

On my turn, I went down to 11 life, made two tokens, and then drew for turn: Grixis Charm. All I would need was time. Jace let us both draw cards, as I wanted to keep him around as long as I could. On his turn, he went to 13 life, then tried to swing, but I tapped down all his creatures with a Cryptic Command. I can't remember if it was off the Command, the draw for turn, or the Jace activation, but by my next turn, I had a second Command and a Vendilion Clique in hand. Again, his Blossoms jacked him for 2 life, and I tapped down all his creatures. Then I played the Clique at the end of the turn (I hadn't missed a land drop all game—thanks, Jace!). His hand was a Path, an Ajani Goldmane, and a Shriekmaw. Only the Path was a threat, but it wouldn't save him from the Grixis Charm—I told him to keep the lot.

On my turn, I swung in with the four Faerie tokens that didn't just come into play and the Clique. After no blockers were declared (all his critters were tapped), I played the Charm, pumping my little flying men. He Pathed the Clique, but it didn't matter. The four tokens jumped to 3/1 and hit for 12 damage. Grixis Charm won me a pre-board game that I could only have won with at least Cryptics otherwise (two Cryptic Commands is a lot more realistic to draw than three).


Game over, man. It's game over.
For the second game, I boarded in my Fallouts and all that, but it wouldn't matter. I Time Walked with a Mistbind Clique, then equipped it with a Loxodon Warhammer. He didn't see an answer to that, and it went the distance.

The rest of my matches at that FNM are pretty uneventful, at least as far as the red element in my deck was concerned. I lost one match because I kept some dumb hands and drew poorly afterward. Rookie mistakes there. The other matches I won not with sick moves from the red card, but just by playing the typical Faeries game. That's both the beauty and stink of the current Standard—there is no color-discipline. It's bad when, with just a few small tweaks to a mana base, I can splash a third color to deck, and reliably run cards that require two of that third color.

U/B/r Faeries vs. Jund Ramp


It gets to hit for 3? Yah!
After FNM, a player wanted to play a few games, so I obliged him. He was running a Jund-ramp deck that was kind of scary (Chameleon Colossus is still an awesome creature, and an absolute nightmare for a Faeries deck, even if they run Sower of Temptations). I had a turn two Bitterblossom, and a turn three Jace, so I did alright. Still, he hit with a Fallout on my turn, sweeping my board and knocking Jace down two counters (I had to foresight to make us both draw for Jace's first activation). He got some life back with a Kitchen Finks, while I just kept making tokens. He went for some bomb plays, but I had a pair of Spellstutter Sprites that kept his greatness off the board.

After I played the second Sprite, he was at 15 life, and I had three tokens in play. That meant that on my turn, while he was tapped out, I had five 1/1s that could attack. I had the Grixis Charm in hand, too. Grixis Charm knocked two full turns off that game. And who knows, with those turns, he could have drawn into another Fallout, which would have really sucked if he followed it up with a Colossus.


Where did he go? He's still good.
Game two, the Charms made a difference again, but not for their pumping effect. I came out great, with a turn one Thoughtseize and a turn two Bitterblossom, but he had an early Chameleon Colossus that I couldn't counter. Early as in turn three, off of a Fertile Ground. He got that despite a Thoughtseize.

On my turn, I had a Spellstutter, a Mistbind Clique, and two Grixis Charms in hand. I did nothing and passed turn. On his turn four, he swung with the Colossus. He only had enough mana to activate it once, and I'm no pansy, so I took it rather than playing the Spellstutter and blocking. He pumped the Colossus, and I went to 9 life. But I played the Spellstutter at the end of his turn. On my turn, I drew another Mistbind Clique. I had a chance, yet.

On his turn, he attacked again. I blocked with the Sprite, let damage go on, then played the Mistbind Clique. He lost the rest of his turn because his lands got tapped, and on my turn, I simply drew and passed. He came in again. I blocked with the Clique. He pumped his guy. With damage on, I played the second Clique, ruining the rest of his turn again.


The greatest card.
He came at me again, I blocked (this time with my Sprite), and this time I bounced my Mistbind Clique with one of my Grixis Charms, ruining his post-combat main phase a third time as the championed Clique came back to play, removing my Sprite from the game. And with a Clique in my hand, it happened a fourth time. Unfortunately, he had a lot of land out, so I couldn't play my Clique, champion the Spellstutter, and gang block the Colossus, as he'd just activate it a second time. I ended up wasting one of those Grixis Charms to bounce his land with the Fertile Ground on it, hoping that he wouldn't get the eighth land. He did. It was an extra two turns I would have given him, in theory.

But, lucky me, I drew into a Cryptic Command. And when you have a few turns with a Mistbind Clique, your opponent's life can get pretty low. He tried to play a Primal Command pre-combat, but I countered it and bounced his Colossus for the win. Had he waited to play the Command, I still would have bounced the Colossus, and he would've had to choose between the critter or the Command. Either way, I was getting the extra time I needed to seal the deal.

I am quite pleased with the way the Charm plays. It does pretty much all the same stuff that Terror did (good), although it does cost one more mana, as well as being quite color-intensive (bad). But it is so versatile, and never, ever a dead card (though that wasn't a common thing for Terror by any means). But what I really like about it is that one of the scary things for Faeries about B/W Tokens or Kithkin is that their creatures, specifically their tokens, get bigger, and Faeries has a hard time keeping up. The Charm does a little to mitigate this, without actually taking up a slot for anything else as the card also functions as spot removal and takes that slot.


Feels too good not to play.
As for any changes to the deck, the loss of Mutavaults really hurts. I didn't notice it most of the time, but any time I wanted to play a Mistbind Clique with only five lands out, I missed the security of knowing I could always animate a Vault and champion it should the opponent clear my other Faeries off the board.

But I think I could fit them in. First off, Sulfurous Spring did nothing for me. Yes, it could turn on my red source for the Reflecting Pool while still giving me a turn one black source for Thoughtsieze. But that never came up. I had enough red sources already that the Spring only ever tapped for colorless mana. I think, therefore, that it would be safe to swap that out for a Mutavault.

The other card that could probably be swapped is a Faerie Conclave. It rarely tapped for blue, more often staying untapped to be a creature should I need an emergency blocker. But, as I don't want too many colorless lands (it is a three color deck, after all), I think I would only pull one Conclave for a Mutavault.


It'd be fun.
The rest of the main I would leave alone, though some friends were trying to convince me to add a 61st card to the deck: Cruel Ultimatum. I think they were half-joking, but I won't deny the allure of it. But the deck already runs two one-ofs: the Whammer, which is simply amazing in Faeries; and the Banefire, which did manage to win me a game one turn faster than the blue bug-men would have done on their own. I don't know if a third one-of is really necessary, especially when it puts me to 61 cards. Maybe, though, that's half the fun of it.

As for the board, I think somethings are truly unnecessary. The fourth Jace is excessive. He was in there because of Blightning (trying to soften that matchup a little) and potentially Swans, which runs Jace to help dig to the deck's namesake creature, in which case my planeswalker acts like a Vindicate on theirs, or forces theirs to act like removal on mine. It seems like such a corner-case, though, and sideboard slots are precious. Plus, it could make the deck clunky (a hand full of Jaces would be just terrible).

The Pithing Needles are just a metagame call for me. There's one player at the local shop who's running Swans, and he's being doing really well, so chances are good that if I'm X-0, I'll be playing him in the fourth or fifth round. Plus, my wife sometimes brings Planeswalker Control (a Naya-colored version of the deck, not the five-colored version) which has all the mainboard hate to deal with Faeries, which means I'll need something to deal with planeswalkers if I want a chance.

One of the Banefires could come out of the board, too. Three Banefires is just too many, I think, for the same reasons as four Jaces is too many. A hand with even two Banefires in it during the early game is bad. You'll probably be forced to play them like creature removal instead of as finishers.

As for the four Scepter of Fugues, I don't know. I haven't played against Five-Colors much, and when I did at FNM, I put in all four Scepters. But during the game, when I drew two, I only played one. It was enough to apply the pressure I needed it to, and when I had opportunity to play the second one, I rather played something else (like Mistbind Clique on my turn, when I knew he couldn't be countered). I only need to see one Scepter, and to that end I don't think I need to run four.

So I could have up to three open slots in the sideboard. What to run? I know some Faeries lists run Flashfreezes to give them a leg-up against Blightning. Maybe that. Got any ideas? Post them in the message board!

By Andrew Hanson on April 23rd, 2009 · Filed in Good Game, Standard (Type 2) · 18 Comments